The Hangover Part III (2013)

The Hangover Part III Synopsis

It's been two years. Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms) and Doug (Justin Bartha) are happily living uneventful lives at home. Tattoos have been lasered off, files purged. The last they heard from disaster-magnet Leslie Chow (Ken Jeong), he'd been tossed into a Thai prison and, with him out of the way, the guys have very nearly recovered from their nights prowling the seamy side of Las Vegas in a roofie'd haze, and being kidnapped, shot at, and chased by drug-dealing mobsters in Bangkok.

The only member of the Wolfpack who's not content is Alan (Zach Galifianakis). Still lacking a sense of purpose, the group's black sheep has ditched his meds and given in to his natural impulses in a big way—which, for Alan, means no boundaries, no filters and no judgment—until a personal crisis forces him to finally seek the help he needs.

And who better than his three best friends to make sure he takes the first step.

This time, there's no bachelor party. No wedding. What could possibly go wrong? But when the Wolfpack hits the road, all bets are off.

The Hangover Part III is the epic conclusion to an incomparable odyssey of mayhem and bad decisions, in which the guys must finish what they started by going back to where it all began: Las Vegas.

From The Hangover Part III to Much Ado About Nothing and much, much more, there's actually a nice hodgepodge of films and television from a variety of different genres available this week. You can check out some of the other October 8 titles after the jump.

With the help of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, we’re giving away two bonus feature-filled copies of The Hangover Part III, which follows the gang chasing down the crooked and sometimes frightening Chow. Here's how to enter.

Fast & Furious 6 roared into theaters this weekend, and if the estimates hold true, the film has secured itself a high spot on the list of successful Memorial Day openers. It hasn't quite topped Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End or Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but it's in that ballpark, with reports putting the action film's 4-day estimate at about $120 million.

Remember when The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift couldn’t even muster $25 million at the domestic box office during its opening weekend seven years ago? Let the record show the franchise’s successes in the years since have not been flukes. The latest installment in the series not only looks poised to win the box office crown this weekend, it looks poised to leave tire tracks all over the competing films.

For the end of the Hangover franchise Warner Bros. organized a press day in Las Vegas where myself and a group of other journalists had the chance to talk with director Todd Phillips and co-writer Craig Mazin about the franchise finale, The Hangover Part III.

I was optimistic that the third and final installment of this raunchy boys-will-be-boys franchise might turn it around by finding a fresh way to make the Wolf Pack unpredictable and hilarious once more. After all, I enjoy the leads, and this adventure—as I'd seen in the many, many trailers—boasts appearances from the wonderfully funny Melissa McCarthy and John Goodman.

In the summer of 2009 Todd Phillips’ The Hangover became a smash hit and stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis became three of the biggest, most sought-after names in Hollywood. The success continued with the first sequel, The Hangover Part II. But this weekend, as you’ve read on the posters, it all ends.

Well, thank goodness for long-running franchises that keep pumping out movies. If not for them we’d have almost nothing to even talk about this week. But alas, the gang’s back with another hangover, another gang has the need for speed and we get an epic flick

It all ends. The time has come for the epic conclusion of what's now the Wolfpack Trilogy, but if you think that the Hangover series is going to go out quietly, you clearly haven't been paying attention. In The Hangover Part III, in theaters on Thursday, May 23, the guys find themselves back in Vegas, forced to find out the truth behind what really happened at that ill-fated bachelor party six years ago

With the movie so close to its release date it's a bit strange to see a new preview that has such a huge chunk of its run-time dedicated to showing clips from previous films in the series, but considering that Part III promises to be the conclusion, it's somewhat nostalgic to look back.

In the final Hangover, the guys try to admit Alan (Zach Galifianakis) into a mental-help facility, only to run into trouble with a mobster (John Goodman) who has a grudge to settle with Chow (Ken Jeong).

The movie, written by director Todd Phillips and co-writer Craig Mazin, is set two years after the events of The Hangover Part II and finds Alan in bad shape after the death of his father (Jeffrey Tambor). Realizing that their friend needs help, Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), Doug (Justin Bartha) team up to try and get Alan into a rehabilitation center.

The new film picks up two years after the last sequel and has Alan falling to pieces after the death of his partner. Stu (Ed Helms), Phil (Bradley Cooper), and Doug (Justin Bartha) come together to try and get Alan to go to a rehabilitation center, but those plans are sidetracked when Doug is kidnapped...

The Hangover Part III promises to be a very different kind of movie than the previous two - most notably by not rehashing the bachelor party/forgotten night plotline - but there are some elements that will be carried over. One such element is the shadowy, intimidating figure portrayed by an A-list dramatic actor.

The Wolf Pack doesn't have a great history with animals. In the first film, one of their forgotten adventures involved stealing a Bengal Tiger that belonged to Mike Tyson, and nearly getting mauled the morning after. The second trip into darkness involved a drug-dealing monkey.

The Hangover movies are filled to the brim bizarre, weird, and crazy characters, but there’s no denying that Zach Galifianakis’ Alan is king among them. Not only does he regularly pull off crazy stunts, even in general conversation it’s clear that something is clearly off-base. So how does one even begin to enter the mind of a character like that?

The first Hangover was pretty dark as it was, complete with drugs, kidnappings and violent gangsters, but director Todd Phillips took things even further with The Hangover Part II. So, naturally, what was his plan while making Part III? Go even darker.

It’s a four hour drive to get from Los Angeles, California to Las Vegas, Nevada, a trip that’s composed entirely of long stretches of highway that extend through the deserts of the south west. And once again we have braved the heat and the sand paving the way to this year’s CinemaCon.

Right before the Thanksgiving holiday of 2012, myself and a small group of other film journalists took a trip out to the Warner Bros. Studio lot in Burbank, California to visit the set of the highly anticipated comedy, and in addition to getting detailed interviews with the cast and crew, also got to watch them film a scene from the new movie

While this isn't by any means a bad poster - just a thoroughly average one- what makes it kind of disappointing is that it comes on the heels of the two designs that arrived earlier this week. But how can you compete with angry John Goodman crouching over a sitting Galifianakis or Jeong taking a parachute ride over the Las Vegas strip?

While The Hangover and The Hangover Part II kicked off with the happy occasion of impending nuptials, The Hangover Part III begins with the Wolf Pack facing some tough times. Alan's beloved daddy (previously played by Jeffrey Tambor) is dead, and in his grief Alan has really gone off the rails. So, his three best friends that anybody could have team up to help him straighten out.

There doesn’t appear to be anything significantly different except for the sequencing. Same amount of “It ends tonight,” mentality, same amount of animal abuse. Why are they in Vegas again? Oh yeah, to “end this thing tonight,” and to “get it ended on this night,” and “to make sure morrow n’er comes to passeth without it having been ended thus.”

The Hangover was a huge surprise success that made overnight stars of Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis. The Hangover Part II was a bloated and mean-spirited cash grab of a sequel that squandered so much of the goodwill from the first film (despite making a fortune). Can the third one-- long-billed as "the conclusion" of the series-- end things on a high note?

Will Alan, Stu and Phil actually burn down Las Vegas? Is there actually a chance that the marketing department's next poster could actually be a parody of The Dark Knight Rises? I hope the answer to both is "Yes."

The image appeared caption-less and begs more questions than it answers. What are they all staring at? Are the cops there for them? Why does Stu (Ed Helms) have blood and sweat all over his collar? Are they about to get into or out of that limo?

We’re likely in for more twisted humor in The Hangover Part III, which Phillips has been saying will depart from the traditional one-drunken-evening plotline and focus on Zach Galifianakis’ disturbed character Alan, who -- the director says -- is “going through a crisis after the death of his father.”

It's hard to say right now if The Hangover Part III is actually a good idea, given how terrible the sequel turned out and how indifferent the cast seemed to returning for yet another movie, now that most of them have their own movie star careers to tend to. But the Wolfpack is back on set anyway, filming an adventure that supposedly takes them to Tijuana

The first two Hangover movies earned boatloads of money, guaranteeing a third movie. But Phillips knows he has to shake up the formula to keep things interesting. But bringing the story back around to a familiar location can help establish some closure if, as reported, Phillips wants to put a cap on this trilogy

If Bridesmaids proved one thing, it's that pre-wedding hilarity and shenanigans isn't exclusively a male specialty. Melissa McCarthy was certainly a contributing factor to the humor and success of Bridesmaids, playing Maya Rudolph's future sister-in-law Megan. Should the actress make an appearance in the upcoming third installment in the Hangover franchise, as is apparently a possibility, the film should be all the funnier for it.

Todd Phillips was able to wrangle Paul Giamatti for a solid part in The Hangover Part II, and now it looks like the director might be able to get yet another highly respected actor into the franchise. John Goodman is now in talks to play a villainous role in The Hangover Part III. The film is currently in pre-production and will be aiming to hit its release date on May 24th.

They’ll all join series staples Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis and Justin Bartha, though it’s still unclear what anyone will be doing in the sequel. Plot details are being kept under wraps. Shooting will have to begin soon, however, as Warner Bros. wants the comedy in theaters on May 24.

Heather Graham, who played the stripper.hooker Jade in Todd Phillips' The Hangover, will be coming back for the second sequel. While she received positive marks from critics and audiences for the part, she was replaced as Ed Helms' love interest for The Hangover Part II by Jamie Chung.

Though we are probably still a few months away from seeing the first poster for The Hangover: Part III, we pretty much already know what it's going to look like. Basically, it will be a glossy, highly-filtered photograph feature stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis all together looking tired, bedraggled and all around worse for wear. Until then, though, we have the first icon from the movie and you know what? It's actually kind of cool.

We don't know what Epps's role will be this time around, but there's no word of it being expanded like Jeong's-- though, let's be honest, would you rather see more of him than Mr. Chow? Epps was pretty funny in his limited role in the first film, and as a much less over-the-top character than Chow

It's all about picking the right city of sin in the Hangover franchise. It began when director Todd Phillips took Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms to the depths of Las Vegas, and then escalated quite a bit in The Hangover Part II when the gang took a trip to Bangkok. So for the third installment of the franchise where else could they possibly go other than Tijuana, Mexico?

The success of Zack Snyder's 300 actually had a fairly significant impact on film scheduling. Released in early March of 2006, the film showed studios that there was potential in releasing blockbusters that early in the year. In fact, all but one of Snyder's projects have been released on that weekend since. But the sequel to 300, 300: The Battle of Artemisium, isn't being directed by Snyder and apparently won't even have the special release date.

One of the key reasons that I disliked The Hangover Part II as much as I did was because of Mike Tyson. It was bad enough that the entire plot was just a copy and paste job from the first, but bringing Tyson back for absolutely no reason was really the last straw (not to mention the way that he was used - as the musical performer at Ted's wedding - was just dumb).

Sure, critics hated The Hangover Part II, but the Thailand-set sequel to the 2009 comedy blockbuster The Hangover went on to earn more than $580 million worldwide, so a third film was almost guaranteed. However, negotiations over at Warner Bros. stalled when the films three stars, Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis, demanded a hefty salary of $15 million apiece, against the backend.

Much as I now kind of resent the entire Wolfpack idea, I do kind of like the characters, and wouldn't mind seeing them in a new adventure that actually bothered to do something new. Yeah, I know, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, but I do think this could work

The one interesting and/or surprising thing here is that Mazin's Hangover Part III co-writer Scot Armstrong is not mentioned as signing on already. Also there are no contracts yet signed requiring director Todd Phillips or any of the stars to return for a third film, or specifying their salaries